Reading Ideas

Since I’ve written several posts recommending books I thought I’d go ahead and put together list of great books that relate to the IT business or can be applied to IT. I think the best things to read are books that help you with collaboration, problem solving, teamwork and new technology ideas.  I’ve written about several of the books below but there a few others I’ve not mentioned before.  I’m going to add to this list form time to time so you might check back.

1. Enterprise 2.0 by McAfee.  This is one of the best books about the new tools and ideas that are sweeping through companies.  I wrote about this book earlier here.
2. In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing by May.  Elegant solutions and what they look like.  I wrote about this here.
3. The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You by Pariser.  A customized internet just for you.
4. The Future of the Internet–And How to Stop It  by Zittrain.  Some things to consider about the internet and what is possible.  He is a great speaker.
5. The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood by Gleick.  A great history of this topic and its implications which I wrote about here.
6. The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Taleb.  If you spend time thinking about business continuity, this might be a book for you.  I wrote about risk in this earlier post.
7. Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure by Hartford.  A great book that talks about the need to adapt to changing conditions.
8. The Innovator’s Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book that Will Change the Way You Do Business (Collins Business Essentials) by Christiansen.
9. The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande which is a great book about process control and getting things done right.  Highly recommended.
10. Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance also by Gawande.  Another great book about the importance of measuring things.
11. Insanely Simple by Ken Sagell which tells the tale of Steve Jobs fanatical focus on simple answers and solutions.

I really need to read The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google by Carr and I’ve got it but haven’t started it yet. I’ve read The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains and loved it, but it doesn’t really belong on this list.

And I think that the Seth Godin books are great too and will challenge your thinking on many fronts.

If you have others to recommend along these lines I’d love to hear your recommendations.